the most powerful engine of domestic tyranny

[soso]

Did we pretend [to be angry about one thing /when we knew, or could have known, that our anger had a different

and much less presentable cause]?

Did we pretend [to be “hurt” in our sensitive and tender feelings…

when envy, ungratified vanity, or thwarted self-will was our real trouble]?

Such tactics often succeed.

The other parties give in.

They give in not because they don’t know [what is really wrong with us]

but because they have long known it only too well…

It needs surgery //which they know () we will never face.

And so we win; by cheating.

But the unfairness is very deeply felt.

Indeed [what is commonly called “sensitiveness”] is the most powerful engine of domestic tyranny,

sometimes a lifelong tyranny.

From Reflections on the Psalms
Compiled in A Mind Awake